The primary scientific contributions of this research will be 1) a detailed examination of how each source of income of the elderly responds to inflation, 2) a determination of which groups of older persons are most vulnerable to declines in real income, 3) a comprehensive assessment of the expenditure patterns of the elderly, and 4) how they respond to price and income changes. The results will be integrated to produce an analysis of the effects of inflation on the health and well-being of the elderly. Institutional constraints will be modeled to determine how changes in the inflation rate alter the real value of income. Individual data will be used to estimate inflation effects on sources of income. Income elasticities for commodity groups will be estimated employing several large expenditure surveys. These estimates will be used to indicate changes in consumption patterns with inflation. This integrated study of the inflation effects on the economic well-being of the elderly will be made available to both researchers and policy makers.